New Feature of the X58 #1: the Core I7 Platform, the Good Side, Part 2

The Intel X58 motherboards support the Core i7 processors, Intel’s newest series of processors under the new Intel Nehalem microarchitecture. The Core i7 is made with 45nm process technology, and probably is one of the best all-around processors on the market today.

In 3dMark benchmarking, the Core i7 processors ranged from scoring in the 16000 point range into the high 17000 range. Now, this is ridiculous; a QX9770(one of the most expensive and top processor from the Core2 Duo series) scored in the mid-13000s. This is just absurd, how much the Core i7 outscored the top processor of the previous architecture. We will have to see what else Intel can churn out from this series.

The Core i7 series also contains an L3 Cache, where all four cores share the same 8MB of L3 cache. What this means is that if there are instructions to carry out and data to store or use, any one of the cores can use this shared cache. The processors also have additional L2 cache that each core has, and each core carries out individual instructions. This explains why the Core i7 series processors scored so much higher than its predecessors.

The Corei7 processors are also extremely overclock-able. Some people have even boasted that they have pushed their Core i7 processors to 4GHz just on normal air cooling and Turbo Boost system alone. However, others have said that their Core i7 processors barely overclock. So what does it say about the Core i7 processors so far? It is still hard to tell, since it is only a 4-month old series of processors. People will have to wait for things to settle down, and maybe wait for Intel to release new processors of this fantastic series.